Marlow or Bourne End - Medmendham - Mill End (Hambleden) - Henley

About half of the walk is directly on the river bank, and the rest of it through varied and largely unspoilt countryside. Medmenham and Hambleden are both very attractive small villages, though just off the direct route.
This walk is not possible during flooding and the wetland habitat shortly before Medmenham may be - wet, as may the riverside meadows before Henley.
You may wish to avoid regatta weeks, Marlow Town Regatta and Festival in mid June and Henley at the beginning of July.

Checked 2009

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Distances

Travel

Marlow, Medmenham, Mill End (Hambleden) and Henley are on the Reading and High Wycombe route with about two buses an hour (fewer on Sundays) for the whole route, and more frequent ones between High Wycombe and Marlow.
There is a bus shelter at the Mill End stop for buses to Henley; it is not known whether buses in the other direction will stop if hailed from it!
Trains to Marlow (and Bourne End) run from Maidenhead, with connections from Paddington and Reading.
Trains run from Henley to Twyford, likewise with connections to Paddington and Reading.
There are frequent buses from High Wycombe to Bourne End, from the bus stop in the High Street just 300 yards downhill from the station. For buses to Marlow continue along the High Street and ahead into the shopping centre, where you should find signs for the bus station, about half a mile (0.8 km) in all.
Detailed travel information for the whole of this area is available from the Traveline South East website www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk or telephone 0871 200 22 33.

Map

This walk starts on the O.S. Explorer map 172 Chiltern Hills East and goes on to 171, Chiltern Hills West just after Medmenham.

Refreshments

Marlow has a wide choice of shops, pubs and restaurants.
At Medmenham the Dog and Badger (dating from circa 1390).is 600 yards from the direct route.
The Stag and Huntsman at Hambleden is nearly half a mile (0.7km) off the main route.
The general store and post office at Hambleden provides refreshments.
Henley has a wide choice of pubs, restaurants and shops.
Please always be considerate about muddy boots in pubs etc; either take them off, or cover them up.
Never eat or drink your own provisions on pub premises (including the garden, if there is one).

Options

For extra length you can start at Bourne End, the station before Marlow. This is also the most convenient start if you are coming from High Wycombe railway station by bus (see Travel, above).
Coming out of Bourne End station, turn left, then left again just after the roundabout, along Wharf Lane.
At a junction, continue ahead along Wharf Lane, over a level crossing and down to the river, turn right and follow the river bank.
On approaching Marlow, follow the tarmac path as it leaves the river in front of a red brick housing complex, to a road (Mill Road).
Turn left and follow the road past Marlow Mill (which was converted to housing in 1968).

(A dead end path is signposted to the left, to Marlow Lock, where there is a fine view.)

Take care round a blind corner with no footway, then take the path on the left through a gap in the high brick wall.
Follow the path as it zigzags to a road (St Peter Street, which used to lead to the old bridge), with The Two Brewers Inn on your right, where you join the main route.

Route

(If arriving in Marlow by train, please start at +++ below.)
Buses do not stop in the High Street. If travelling by bus from the High Wycombe direction, get out at the Spittal Street stop. In the other direction, the stop is at the police station, in Dean Street.
From the mini roundabout at the junction of Dean Street and Spittal Street, go past the shops to the Market Square (at the junction of the High Street and West Street).

Marlow is "recognised as of national importance for the quality of [its] buildings by the Council for British Archaeology" with a number of Georgian buildings in the High Street and West Street.
The Rhome restaurant on the Market Square was originally the Town Hall (built in 1807).
The obelisk in the square marks a stage on the "Gout Track", the turnpike route set up by the Cecil family from Hatfield House to the Bath Road at Reading (hence the distances to Hatfield and to Bath shown on it).

Go down the High Street towards the river, as far as the junction with Station Road.

From here you can take a short cut directly into the park (with toilets) opposite and cross it diagonally to the riverside.

Otherwise turn left along Station Road to the junction with St Peter Street, where you turn right.

+++From Marlow railway station, go along Station Approach to a five-way junction, then half left (along Station Road), to the junction with St Peter Street, where you turn left.

Opposite St Peter Street is Marlow Place, dating from 1720, with some details described in Pevsner's The Buildings of Buckinghamshire as "strangest" and "oddest".
On the left in St Peter Street is the Old Parsonage, parts of which date from the 14th century.
On the right is the Masonic Centre, constructed of rough flint. This looks like a converted church, but we understand it was built in 1861 as a reading room and place where public meetings could be held without the consumption of alcohol.
On the left is St Peter's Roman Catholic Church, designed by Pugin.
This street led to the original Marlow Bridge and is the oldest part of the town.
Near the far end of the street is The Two Brewers Inn, dating from 1686, where Jerome K Jerome is said to have written Three Men in a Boat.
Marlow has a number of other literary connections, but most of the interesting sites are some distance off our route.

Almost opposite The Two Brewers take an alleyway, past the church.

All Saints Church was rebuilt from 1832 onwards, mostly in grey brick. The spire was completed in 1898 and includes some of the characteristic chequer pattern of stone and flints often found in this area.

Continue to the main road, with the bridge on your left and the High Street on your right. (There are toilets in the park opposite).
Turn left, cross, and go down the steps just before the bridge, to the river bank.

Marlow Bridge was built by William Tierny Clark. He also built Hammersmith Bridge, and the bridge between Buda and Pest, in Hungary, destroyed during World War II. The bridge was opened in 1832 and was originally of wrought iron. In the mid twentieth century it was in poor repair and threatened with demolition, but it was reconstructed in steel in 1964-6.
As the Thames at Marlow is no longer regarded as adequate for rowing at the highest levels, Marlow International Regatta now takes place at Dorney Lake, with the more relaxed Town Regatta and Festival at Marlow the previous weekend.

Turn right and continue along the river a mile and a half (2 km), passing on the opposite bank Bisham church then Bisham Abbey.

Bisham Abbey dates at least in part from the 12th century. A former foundation of the Knights Templar, it became an Augustinian Priory and then a Tudor manor house. In 1946 it was established as a National Centre for sports training and is now managed by Sport England.

Shortly after passing an island with modern housing, with the weir of Temple Lock in sight ahead, turn right (here leaving the Thames Path, which crosses to the other bank shortly beyond Temple Lock) along a tarmac drive, to Low Grounds Farm.
To the right of the farm entrance go along an enclosed path.

Among the farm buildings note what appears to be a converted granary, on staddle stones to keep out the rats.

Continue past the farm to East Lodge.
Turn left, initially along a fenced path, then continue ahead along the field edge, till shortly before the car park of Harleyford Marina.
Bear right alongside a brick wall then a metal railing, cross a drive, continue ahead across a yard and to the left of a shed, and bear right up steps.
At the top of the steps cross a drive, and continue with the club house on your right (and what appears to be another old granary raised on staddle stones on your left).
Follow the path as it bears right, then through a kissing gate on to the drive of Home Farm, past the former farm buildings, to a wood.
Go down into the wood, then up to a path/track junction by a solid wooden gate.
Here turn left (the circular walk is waymarked to the right) with a flint wall on your left, then go into a short tunnel (the exit comes into sight very soon after you enter).
Continue quite steeply downhill to the river bank, then along an enclosed path.

The cliffs to your right are in the extensive grounds of Danesfield House. The house is described by Pevsner as WH Romaine Walker's magnum opus and "vast and Tudor" [in style], though constructed about 1900. It is now a hotel and spa. From the opposite bank it looks very imposing, but the path here is kept well out of sight, partly by the tunnel you have just gone through.
You pass an old capstan/windlass. This was used to haul boats up at a "flash lock". Before locks with two lock gates were introduced, weirs with just one gate were used. The gate was left shut to increase the depth of water above it, but had to be opened to let boats through, and those heading upstream had to be hauled up against the current.
Hurley lock was completed in 1774, following the establishment of the Thames Commissioners, with responsibility for improving the navigation on the river. Marlow and Henley both became busy river ports, for timber and farm produce, but lost business with the coming of the railways. At one time in the Middle Ages Henley was effectively the head of navigation.

Go on past a house and along a drive to the main road.

West Lodge, thought to have been built to a design by Pugin, is on your right. Look back at the attractive gates (inconspicuous if open).

Immediately go through the gateway of Abbey Lodge on your left, then over the bridge just beyond it, to a gate in the fence immediately on the right.

(If the wetland habitat ahead is too wet for you, a bus from the stop 200 yards behind you will take you ahead to the next stop at Medmenham, where you rejoin our route down the side road to the left. Walking along this narrow main road is not recommended !)

Cross a large, often marshy, field, to a stile to the left of stables.

This is Water Mill Land, a Local Wildlife Site (previously called County Wildlife Sites), an area of wet grassland, scrub and stream, an uncommon habitat in Buckinghamshire, supporting Fen Bedstraw, which is classified as a County scarce plant. Other plants found here that are classed as 'uncommon' in the county are Lesser Pond Sedge, Hemp Agrimony, Common Comfrey and Orange Balsam.

Cross the corner of the next field to another stile, then cross a track to another stile into an enclosed path. Follow this as it becomes a drive, to a minor road.
Here the direct route turns left, but to visit the Dog and Badger pub or the church, or to go to the bus stop, turn right and continue 600 yards to the main road.

Medmenham is an attractive small village, and claims to be the only remaining riverside village in Buckinghamshire. Many of the houses date from about 1900, the time of the construction of Danesfield House, when the manor was divided into three parts, one of which was Danesfield, but some are older.
Parts of the Manor House date back to the fifteenth century.
In front of one of the houses are two guns, with a notice explaining they were the naval guns that ended the siege of Ladysmith, after having been dragged overland for 1500 miles.
Pevsner says St Peter's church, built of flint and chalk blocks, "looks sixteenth century or later". In the church is a bronze plaque with a portrait head by Kathleen Scott, the widow of Captain Scott.

Having turned left (or returned from the pub) continue down to the river.

On your left is Medmenham Abbey, leased in the eighteenth century by Sir Francis Dashwood of West Wycombe and the scene of the activities of the Order of St Francis of Wycombe or Hellfire Club from 1755 to 1763. It was originally a Cistercian Abbey founded in the thirteenth century. Gothic additions were made by Sir Francis, but most of the present building dates from about 1900. The timber framed wing at the west end used to be the Ferry Boar Inn until 1914. The best view is from the Thames Path on the other side of the river !
This used to be the site of one of the many ferries crossing the river. See the monument to your right.
The towing path used to cross the river here, continuing upstream on this side, and downstream on the other.

Turn right along the river bank and continue a mile and a half (2 km) to a house ahead.
Turn right for nearly 200 yards along the field edge then left through a kissing gate to go along a minor road (shortly passing another road to a former ferry on your left).
Where the road turns right there is a well used way ahead to join another minor road, which you follow to the main road, where you turn left.

The bus stop nearly opposite is for Marlow and High Wycombe, the one with a shelter to your left for Henley and Reading.
To visit Hambleden Lock, turn left just after the bus stop shelter (the official right of way is not along the broad drive to the marina but the footpath just after the cottage; take care along the road !). Keep right along a fenced path.

Yewden Manor at the road junction dates from the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and near here was the site of a Roman villa. The site was excavated in the early 20th century and finds from it are in the County Museum, some of them on display but most of them in store. A noteworthy feature was that apparently a large quantity of infants' bones were found.

To continue the walk, take the minor road nearly opposite the bus shelter 400 yards to a road junction (toilets are in the car park a few yards further on).
Take the footpath through the kissing gate on the right, parallel with the road ahead, to a kissing gate on to a fenced track, where our main route turns left.

To detour to Hambleden village, go ahead along the length of the next field to a kissing gate by a bridge, and turn right along the road for the shop, church and pub.

As you approach Hambleden, note the graceful 18th century former rectory on the hillside just outside the village.
Hambleden has been described as one of the prettiest villages in England, both for the harmony of its brick and flint cottages, and for its position in the lovely valley running down to the River Thames. It has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1944.
The parish church has several interesting features. There is a touching monument to Sir Cope D'Oyley, his wife and all ten of their children. Apparently those who carry skulls died before their parents. In front of the memorial is an oak chest which belonged to Lord Cardigan, who led the ill-fated charge of the Light Brigade. Some richly carved wooden panels used as an altar in the south transept are said by tradition to be from Cardinal Wolsey's bedstead!
As well as the grave of WH Smith, the churchyard contains that of Major George Howson, who started the tradition of wearing poppies on Armistice Day, and set up a factory for making them. There are also two 18th century mausoleums.
The estate office was originally built as a museum for the artefacts found during the excavation of the Roman villa near Yewdon Manor, now in the County Museum.
Beyond the church is the Manor House, originally built in 1603, and birthplace of Lord Cardigan.
Also at the top of the village, and easily missed, is the Stag and Huntsman pub.

After visiting Hambleden, return to the bridge and continue along the road to a road junction.
Take the tarmac path ahead, diagonally uphill.
Where the fence continues level slightly left, continue uphill ahead to a bridleway junction at the top of the hill.
Go downhill to leave the wood by a gateway, where you join the main route at *** below.

***Follow the footpath along the left-hand field edge, over two stiles, a farm drive and another stile, then through a kissing gate to the road.
Cross with great care, and continue on the other side of the road 400 yards. (The bus stop for Henley is on the same side as the footway, for High Wycombe on the other side.)
Go on past Henley Management College on your left (Greenlands, built in the early nineteenth century and later enlarged for WH Smith, the bookseller) to a stile on the left.
Cross the stile and go half right across parkland, heading between the River Thames visible to your left and a large pond to your right, to a footbridge by a gateway just to the left of the pond.
Continue ahead to another footbridge 60 yards from the river, into woodland.

Here you enter Temple Island Meadows, a Site of Special Scientific Importance and a habitat of the Lodden lily. There is an information board later.

Continue close to the river, crossing several more footbridges on the way to Henley, shortly passing Temple Island.

Temple Island is the start point for regatta races, indicating that you are just over 2000 metres from the end of the regatta course and just a little more from the end of the walk. The regatta was started in 1839, following the first Oxford and Cambridge boat race in 1829.
The red building you see on your right as you cross a wide creek is part of Fawley Court. After being sacked during the Civil War, the house was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, and is regarded by architecture historians as one of his most successful designs for a formal residence. In the 1770s, the grounds were dramatically landscaped by Capability Brown. Both George III and George IV visited the house. In 1952 the house and surrounding park were purchased by the Congregation of Marian Fathers, initially as a school for Polish boys, and in 1986 the house was converted into a 'Retreat and Conference Centre' (condensed from Wikepedia).

On approaching Henley, go the length of the spectator and parking field (entering Oxfordshire where you cross a stream) and at the far end bear right through a kissing gate, to the road.
Turn left, and continue ahead at a junction with mini-roundabouts, along Bell Street.

(There are bus stops either side just after the mini roundabouts but when we checked they did not display timetables. The stop on the other side of the road is for Marlow and High Wycombe.)

The Bull Inn on the right just after New Street is one of the oldest inns in Henley, dating back to 1478. Note the two fire insurance plaques on the front of the building.

Inconspicuous on the right just before you reach the Market Place is the bus stop for Marlow and High Wycombe. The stop for Reading is on the far side of Hart Street (the road to the left of the Market Place). Because of the one-way system, both bus routes seem to be going in the same direction (but from different stops).
For the direct route to the station, continue ahead beyond the Market Place along Duke Street to the second cross roads, and turn left down Station Road. The station stands a little back from the road, to the right.
The pleasantest way to the station is to go down Hart Street, turn right and follow the main road as it bears away from the river just before passing the station.

Henley has a number of old inns, as well as the Bull. Zizzi's restaurant in Hart Street used to be Old White Hart (perhaps owing its name to Richard II, whose badge was the white hart). There is a galleried yard (now enclosed). Before the advent of the railways this was Henley's main coaching inn. Both Charles I and the Prince Regent are said to have stayed at the Red Lion, near the bridge.
Henley Bridge was built in 1786 by William Hayward.
The oldest parts of the church are Early English. Note the stone and flint chequer tower.